History: European settlement on St Lucia had been a game of musical chairs for centuries. The English attempted unsuccessfully to colonize the island in 1605 and 1638. It was settled by the French in 1650 but then changed hands fourteen times before it became a British Crown Colony in 1814 under the Treaty of Paris.

St Lucia was a member of the Windward Islands Federal System until December 1957 and a member of the West Indies Federation from 1958 to 1961. St Lucia became an independent nation within the Commonwealth on February 22, 1979.